Leopold Trax
Leopold Trax (born Leopold Vedicci) is a philosopher and Communist from the Third Era. He is considered the founder of Communism, being one of the first to name the ideology, and/or establish it on Tamriel's political spectrum. He appears in The Political Canon. Childhood Leopold Vedicci was born and raised in the Imperial City during 3 E 306,as the third child to Cynthia & Roman I Vedicci, into one of the wealthiest families in Cyrodiil. The house Vedicci had always had close connections to the Empire and Septim Dynasty, and had positions passed on as nobles in the City. Though Leopold was the second son of the family, he still was given the benefits of such positions. He was small, even at birth, which disappointed his father who wanted all his sons to be strong, as he felt it would bring pride to his name having the best looking mortals as his children. When he was three years old, Leopold was brought to the Patriarch of House Vedicci, Arthur Vedicci, in order to receive a blessing from him. Arthur looked disgusted at the boy, thinking of him as inferior to his older brother, the heir to Vedicci, but still gave him a blessing. This experience at a young age caused Leopold to feel alone, as if his own family didn't even see him as a regular person, but rather as an object for their own benefit. That they rejected him, despite being a child of the family, just because he was a little smaller, or didn't inherit the looks of his attractive father and grandfather. Leopold eventually remained cold and distant from his family. Despite sometimes trying to get in good with his parents, his mom and dad seemed to have little interest spending time with him, instead having servants tend to his needs. He grew close with his younger brother, Markus, who seemed to be treated similar to him. The two would share stories with each other, play games, and could relate to Leopold's frustration. Adolescence Leopold remained sheltered through most of his younger life, only being exposed to fancy homes and palaces in the city. His father openly taught his children that the poor were inferior to them, and that they shouldn't pay them mind. Their place was at the top of society, and they should stay that way. Leopold, not knowing anything else, believed this. When Leopold was twelve, his parents continued to pay him little mind, and his servants believed that he was old enough to start going out on his own more, so they let him walk around the local mansions in the area. Being so excited around the city, he eventually ran out of the area, and accidentally into a poor section of the city. He was shocked by what he saw; Elves, Beasts, and humans all suffering. They were sick, had worn down slums for homes, and ragged clothes. They even barely had enough to eat. Leopold, shocked by this, asked them why they were begging, and how they could live like this. Most explained how they worked extremely terrible jobs, and were payed terribly. That the best they could do was live so poorly, and it made his sad. He was then found by a servant, and went back to his life, but he couldn't understand how they were so wealthy while some couldn't even afford basic things like food. He told his siblings about what he saw, and most of them simply explained how they deserved it, and as wealthy nobles, it was their place to have more. His parents explained to him the same thing, but he didn't understand. When he became thirteen, his parents decided he needed something to do, some useful for the family. They thought a lawyer for a Royal Court might be a good job for him, and they hired tutors to teach the boy many new things, he began an education in politics, law, history, and economics. Philosophies As the years went on Leopold continued his studies, and never forgot about that day. He constantly wrote about his theories, about how society is ran, and discussed it with Markus. He learned many things regarding government and the way things were ran in his studies. This all influenced his thoughts. At age twenty one, he graduated from his studies and made a rough draft of a work he was creating. A book titled Communism which was his ideas on how we could fix the issues in society. He mostly wrote it but his brother helped with some of the ideas. It explained how within his education for all those years, society has always been a feud between classes. Either it be strong & weak, or rich and poor. That we lived in a society where the 1% (Nobles, Monarchs, Businesses) exploit 99% (Everyone else). Exploitation was necessary to become rich, and afford basic needs. The current economic system that every nation on Tamriel used, was what caused this issue, Capitalism. He thought of an alternative to this system, one where everyone could be equal & happy. He called it Communism, hence the title of the book, was discussing it. The core belief of it was that everyone earned the same wage, regardless of their profession. That way underpay can be avoided as well as exploitation. The people would each be able to do what they want, and would work hard simply to help their community. That the government would need to control most businesses to ensure these practices are held, and to control the money, meaning the Economy would constantly be a good place. The Government could also ensure freedom for the people, as in the freedom to speak out, or religion, race. Education, Medical Treatment, and housing were considered rights to people, and they would have to be provided regardless of the job they had, and every person regardless of their physical, gender, or mental differences would be accepted and treated as equals. He wanted to completely remove hierarchies from Tamriel, and racial or ethnic ones were big, as well as religious feuds and even gender role hierarchies were everywhere. Studying the work of Dwemer and the previous was a philosopher from Alinor, Percius. He realized this would not work, without a Democratic Government system, he supported the removal of the Emperor the greatest of all the hierarchies, even the Nobles had to bow to the kings, and with a Republic the workers had the power to truly control their government, he thought modern borders were outdated and that Tamriel should be together as free, as different nations encouraged alienation of people, and therefore Capitalism. However, he supported a one-party government for the Communist Party, as any other groups could turn things back to the way they were, and he thought a single party would unify the people more. He published the book when he turned 22 3 E 328 under the name Leopold Trax to avoid anyone associating it with his family (he coined the surname Trax, since he didn't want anyone to follow his tracks). The book instantly starting appealing to the poor around Cyrodiil, feeling it as unifying. The rich however didn't take too kindly to it, and eventually it spread outside of the native province. Aftermath Leopold than went on to pursue his law career, due to his family connections and even skill he managed to work at the Royal Office of Law & Order. He got a decent pay, and remained at this job for a while. His parents eventually got him married at age twenty-five, to a young lady from the Chisenu Clan. Until one day, his brother passed away in a war, which cause Leopold sadness. He than started to re-think his life. He was a hypocrite working at a high class job, and donating little of it to the poor. He wanted to try and be a Communist in the modern day Cyrodiil. Soon he lived considerably less wealthy, much to the disappointment of his bride, deciding to give in to the people since he was living so well and they had nothing. His family thought he was crazy for giving up his wealth to the people. They considered themselves superior to the poor, and that they earned their money, while the workers earned theirs. Emperor Uriel Septim VI started to get nervous of this Communist idea, thinking that he might be overthrown if the workers get too angry. But since he relied on nobles a lot for the nation and could not just simply start social change, his only course of action was to ban the book. He also set out a warrant to find the identity of Leopold Trax and hold him for treason for speaking against his Emperor. The Blades searched for this man for two years. Leopold, now twenty-eight, had stopped giving money to charity due to his father cutting his "Trust Fund", since his charitable donations were hurting the family legacy of pride. Leopold spent 6 months fighting against this, while the whole incident caused the Emperor to realize that the second-born Vedicci son, Leopold Vedicci was Leopold Trax. The guards were quickly dispatched to get him, but Leopold was smart and fled town the night before. His father was furious his son was the author of such an anti-aristocratic, egalitarian type piece. He not only helped the Emperor's guards find him, but disowned the boy from the Vedicci family. Leopold managed to stay in Bravil for a short time with the money he had saved up. He quickly realized people would recognize him from guards, so he knew he had to leave Cyrodiil. He made a short stop in Chorrol and went to Hammerfell. After traveling around North-West for a while, he managed to settle down in a cottage outside of Wayrest, living his life in solitude with enough support, due to his well off job before. He was bitter at the Emperor. How could simply criticizing the man possibly make him a criminal? He thought it was a sign of total oppression by the higher classes in society. He was less bitter with his parents, however. He thought they were victims in their own right, maybe not the same as the poor who have to live in slums, but that they were so corrupted by the system that they only cared about their money. Rejecting their own son because a made-up hierarchy, being thirty at the time. He then wrote a second book, The Capital where he coined the terms, Bourgeois and Proletariat, and he discussed the state of Capitalism and how it benefited only a very few rich elites, and that the Hierarchy consisted of The Emperor, Nobles, Average Workers, Peasants and slaves, and that they needed to destroy this system with Communism. He signed it with his pen name again, and managed to get it published age thirty-one. This book was as popular as his other one but it caused more attention to come to him, and got banned as well on behalf of the government Demise At age thirty-two, Leopold continued to live in the cottage, while the Blades recently discovered he had been staying in Wayrest and told citizens they would give Septims if they found him, and showed how he looked. A man eventually saw him come out to re-fill his water buckets, and went after Leopold, eventually striking him in the back of the head with a pickaxe. His body was then shortly preserved by some of his fans, only after a Blades Officer confirmed it was him. They used magic to keep it constant and hide it away. Legacy Leopold Trax's works began to inspire many other philosophers to continue his studies, and revolution to occured in Skyrim, Morrowind, High Rock, and Argonia to try and make them true. It has made Trax a very popular figure, especially around the old Communist Countries. His body was placed in the Trax Mausoleum in Imperial City, after those who took his body gave it up to the government. It shows artifiacts of Clan Vedicci, and some personal items, as well as the perserved body of Leopold Vedicci. Members of Clan Vedicci still visit the place from time to time to respect their ancestor who changed Tamriel. Trivia *Leopold Trax was said to want developed Nations to upgrade to Communism first. He thought an underdeveloped one taking a step to Communism would lead to disaster, which is interesting, as most of the Revolution occured in nations experiencing under-development at the time. *Leopold had one son during his marriage, Randolph Edger Vedicci, who in turn was raised by his brother Levan Vedicci, and had many generations. Two of the Vedicci children were actually invited to stay in Skyrim, being asked by the President Boramir, due to their heritage. They are still going down in the Vedicci family. *Leopold Trax was said to be a poor Lawyer, being lazy at his job and deeming it "boring". The Emperor even admitted he wasn't much use working for him. *Leopolds height is 5 ft 9 in and he weighed 150 lbs. These measurements were figured out when making the proper case. *Leopold Trax was actually known for having bigoted opinions towards Homosexuals, thinking them a result of Capitalism. It was only during Boramir's time that they were considered part of the Proletariat. Category:Males Category:Characters Category:Imperials Category:Philosophers Category:Communists Category:Nobility Category:Deceased